The new program, called “masked engagement,” allows homeland security officers to assume false identities and interact with users—friending them, joining closed groups, and gaining access to otherwise private postings, photographs, friend lists and more.
A senior Department of Homeland Security official tells me that over 6,500 field agents and intelligence operatives can use the new tool, a significant increase explicitly linked to more intense monitoring of American citizens.
I assumed this was a given. Of course there are going to be people on Lemmy and Reddit and Discord whose sole reason for being there is information. Possibly even encouraging violence to see who takes the bait.
There’s a podcast series called The Michigan Plot. Wherein undercover FBI pick the dumbest man in the group and lead him where they want him to go. It’s a bit of a horror show whatever your political lean. That dumb man is now in prison.
Doing such on social media would be much cheaper and easier.